February 15, 2025 • 22 mins
Spring training is here, so what’s the vibe in Arizona? We’re joined by Kyle from The Setup Man Show to talk all things Cubs, spring training, and what to expect in 2025! We break down the early takeaways, from Nico’s injury, to whether the Cubs did enough to fill roster holes. Can Tucker stabilize the offense? Who from the Iowa Cubs could step up this season? Tune in now! Subscribe: / @dingersachicagocubsfanpodc824 Talk #Cubs baseball on our facebook group: / 188995809182063 @dingercubs is presented by OnTapSportsNet.com, your go-to source for Cubs news, analysis, and updates. Follow us on social media: @Diingercubs | @OnTapSportsNet Panelists: @dingercubs | @baseball_buj | @wycoffjd23 | Follow us on Twitter: @dingercubs Follow us on Instagram: @dingercubs TikTok: @dingercubs Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/dingercubs
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to The Dinger's Podcast, presented to you by
Test Sorts Network with your host Mitch Jeff Kevis.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Ready to talk to the Cubs. All I need is
y I ain't believe, under estimate the Swingers.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
The Dinger's Podcast is on the air. I'm your host Mitch.
Today we got a great episode for you. We have
an interview with Kyle from The Setup Man. He is
out at spring training right now, so he's been I mean,
if you follow him, which I hopefully you are on
X on Instagram, on his YouTube channel, you see that
(00:49):
he's posting daily videos of spring training. You see he
just posted a video of Brandon Hughes pitching and the
other day Justin Steele his bullpen and it's it's he's
He's amazing. He does some great interviews. Just had an
interview with Matt Shaw. Highly recommend you check that out.
But the dude is phenomenal with his Cubs content. So
(01:13):
reached out to him, got an interview with just the
Vibe at spring Training and got into all the things
happening out there, what it's like to take part in
in going out to a spring training. So hopefully you
guys enjoy this interview with the great Kyle from the
Setup Man from The Dinger's Podcast, and it's time to
(01:36):
make a call to the pen.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Bring on the righty, are you alrighty? I am alrighty. Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He throws the absolute gas out of the pen. We're
joined by the Setup Man, Kyle, and we're excited to
have him. If you follow him on YouTube or x
you know that he's putting out great Cubs content. So
we're pleased to welcome Kyle from the Setup Man on
The Dinger's Podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Mitch, thanks for having me. Man.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yeah, a couple of years ago, like the word with
the Cubs was a vibe, Like it's a vibe, like
in you're at spring training right now? Like what what
is the vibe at spring training with the Cubs? Like
it's been kind of like an up and down roller
coaster of an off season and we just had some
crazy news of like the bragmant thing going on.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
What's the vibe at spring training right now? I I
love this question because like you think, like if you
if you've never been to spring training or you've never
been to Cubs cod and you're like, what's the vibe
and it's like, I don't know that there's like enough
going on to feel a vibe from the players. But
what I will say is from a fans standpoint, this
(02:46):
is my second spring training, uh coming. Like the practices,
the amount of fans that are here is a lot
more than last year, a lot more so. Like there's
a little autograph area that I'm looking at over here.
Last year it was two or three people. Now it's
like ten to twelve. You got a ton of people
that are trying to, you know, get Kyle Tucker's autograph.
(03:08):
You've got a ton of people are trying to get
showed him in Naga. A lot of Japanese media, a
lot of Japanese fans this year, whereas like last year,
I think there was just a few. And I just
think that that's a really cool thing to see out here.
From myself, it makes it a little harder for me
to get some content sometimes because I'm battling with like
(03:28):
trying to shoot over people's heads and stuff, but it's
it's fun. And then like from a player coaches standpoint,
all that kind of stuff, what was really interesting for
me this time around is it's a lot chiller this year,
Like practices feel like they're starting later. There's less going
on like during those practices. But I think, like with
(03:50):
this only being year two for me, I think I
want to I want to say maybe last year was
the exception because it was Greg Council's first year. Maybe
he just wanted to like get into things and like
just get a lot of stuff going so that he
could see all the guys where now he's a little
bit more familiar and he just wants the guys to
be healthy, and he wants the guys to like do
things based on their schedule. A lot a lot of
these players have been living here in Arizona since like
(04:12):
the end of the season, and so for that reason,
I think there's just a little bit more of like, hey,
we don't have to like do so much. Let's just
do like a three hour practice instead of a four
or five hour practice like last year. So yeah, it's
it's a little more laid back, but it's it's fun.
I'll say one thing. It was really fun seeing Kyle
Tucker in the full Cubs UNI the other day. That
(04:33):
was cool. Yeah, he looked good.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
He looked again in that in that baby blue hat.
I like the Thay spring training hats. Oh yeah, I've
never been to Cubs spring training. Played college baseball and
we played some games in Florida and got to go
to some spring training games in Florida.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I've never been to Mesa, never been to Cubs. We
just had a conversation with my wife, like we need
to sometime take a trip out there.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
What is it like as a fan or like for you,
like how much do you get to like see and
experience like with spring training?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It's so much fun, man, Like this is the World
Series for Cubs fans, for any fans, or you can
call it the Christmas for fans, Like, you know, uh,
just this morning, as soon as I'm walking up here,
you know, Matt Shaw's signing a bunch of autographs and
I walk over and I had him on my channel
last month and hey Kyle or hey Matt, it's Kyle,
(05:30):
And oh hey Kyle, how long you here for? And
you know you're just chatting like you're, you know, running
into a friend at the mall kind of thing. Ben
Brown was over here. I'm on my channel last month
as well, and you know I'm the only one here
at feel one right now, and Ben's walking in and out.
I was just like, hey, what's up Ben, And I'm like, man,
all these like autograph guys over here, they're missing out
(05:53):
on Ben over here, and I'm you know, just get
to have a two three minute conversation with Ben and
it's really cool. Man, Like it's it's just such a
laid back vibe. I will say, it's not like that
with everyone. You know, there's some guys that are just
like they're therein like I'm focused. I don't want to
deal with any outside distractions, which is fine, but this
is all open, free to the public. Like I get
(06:15):
dms all the time from people that are like, hey,
like how do you get a media credential or how
much does it cost gain there? I'm like, guys, this
is free. Like all the things I'm doing, I don't
have a media credential. I'm not paying to get in here.
You know. I'm looking at all the coaches getting ready
over right here right now, like I'm there's literally no
one here. And then once the practice is start around
like ten thirty, it'll just flood with fans. So if
(06:38):
you're gonna come out, come out early. If you're gonna
come later, stay later, because that's when all the players leave.
Then they go back to their cars and everyone's gone,
and it's it's just it's like photographs, autographs and having
even conversations with players. Justin Steele has come up a
bunch over here and just talks to all the all
the autographers and is out and including myself. Just it's fun.
(07:00):
It's it's really cool. I can't explain except for it's
just like it's like you get to just run into
your favorite player at the mall and have a conversation
like that's that's the cool part about it. Yeah, need to.
I need to In the next couple of years.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
That'll be a trip that my wife and I take
out and take kids, maybe go out and see The
Cubs have done quite a bit of job in remaking
their bullpen. Their bench looks a lot different than last year,
but we still have some holes, Like they're still like, Okay,
we're gonna try maybe Canario at first base as a backup.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
We have Birdie that can maybe float around to third or.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Second, Like are you concerned with that that we haven't
done enough like to fill in those holes. We've spent
so much time trying to go after like Bregman or
maybe that's then the where the focus was. But have
we done enough to fill in those holes to be
able to have a good bench, to be able to
support the stars that.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Are pretty locked in at their positions. Yeah, I think
the bullpen has said I think Jed did a really
good job with the bullpen this offseason. Had we not
gotten the big names like Presley and Brazier, I wouldn't
have said the same. But you have impact plus depth
this year, and there's some guys that could surprise us
like Phil Bickford looked good, brand Hughes looked good yesterday,
(08:23):
this guy Ben Heller, Brad Keller, who Tyler Zombro is
really high on. By the way, there's a lot of
excitement out of the bullpen, and I think that they'll
be able to deal with injuries a lot better out
of the bullpen this year. The starters, I really really
really thought we were going to get an impact starter
(08:44):
over the off season. Now you're really helping that Boyd
stays healthy. You're hoping that Javier Sad stays healthy. He's
already dealing with an oblique issue. So then what's your
backup is it's Jordan Wicks and Colin Ray, and that
just feels feels like if in the hunt by the
trade deadline, that's going to be the number one target
(09:05):
the bench though, to your question, yeah, I just I
don't know. I with with us being thirty two million
dollars short right now of the back threshold, plus the
bench looking the way it is, it just feels like
there's another move coming. I hope it's a Justin Turner
type of move. I don't have the free agents in
front of me right now. I know there's been other
(09:27):
talks of other free agents from people, but like Justin
Turner just feels like a really good option. There canario
being forced at first base. I don't know. I don't.
I always feel like they just like say, oh, go
play first base, Like you know, let's just throw this
guy at first base. I mean, Michael Bush last year
didn't look great at first base during spring training and
(09:49):
then found a way to make it not only work,
but like by the end of the season last year
he looked like he was a gold glove first baseman.
It took a while, though, Like, I don't, I don't
think that that just happens over now. So yeah, that
worries me. There's not aside from Canario, there's not a
lot of pop off the bench. Carcy Kelly, I don't
(10:09):
know the last time he hit double digit home runs.
John Burdy doesn't hit home runs. Beat all Brewan doesn't
hit home runs gauged workmen. But I was just talking
to a friend about him, like, are we really like,
just because he was a Rule five draft pick, we
just assumed he's gonna be on the roster, Like the
dude's never even seen a pitch in triple A. I
know he's got a great glove. I know, especially if
this Matt Shaw injury doesn't continue to heal, which it
(10:30):
sounds like it is after talking this morning, sounds like
he's pretty much ready to go in a couple of
days here. Then maybe gauge Workman fits in the roster.
But I have a hard time thinking like, oh, yeah,
he's got a great glove, and because we got him
the Rule five draft, we're just gonna throwhim on the
twenty six minut roster and that's already compacted. It feels
it feels like a push to me. So but yeah,
(10:51):
to make to make a long story short, I think
they are one move away from the bench, and I
would be surprised that they don't make that move. Uh.
Speaking out with offense.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So it's been kind of trend the last couple of
years where the Cub's offense is kind of just taking
a vacation for a month or two in Uh, you
just go through those stretches where just noble clicking, nobody's
it's it's it's just struggle to score runs.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Do you think they've done enough?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I mean, Kyle Tucker will help probably stabilize because of
his consistency at the plate. But what I look at
is like the Miguel Amaya's the PCAs who took a
big step last year in the second half. Do you
think the offense has enough now with some young guys
that have kind of got over the hump a little
bit to be able to stabilize that offense throughout the
(11:45):
whole year.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I think if in July you told me they were
bottom third offense, I wouldn't be surprised. And if you
told me in July that they were top five offense,
I also wouldn't be surprise. And the thing is we
can't like underestimate enough how much of an impact Kyle
Tuckler makes in this lineup, I think, I don't, I don't.
(12:11):
I don't want to throw out like a really big
projection here, but I just think about a guy like
sayas Azuki, who has had so much pressure to like
take the next step, and now he's not gonna be
in the field. He doesn't have to worry about criticism
of as being an outfielder, and instead of like being
the guy in the lineup, now he is the guy
(12:32):
behind the guy. I can see a really big year
out of says Azuki because the pressure is just off.
And man, the way that he hits at spring training,
you're like, the ball, just the ball, just it's crazy, dude.
Like you watch this guy in VP and you're like,
this guy's a thirty five to forty home run guy,
and then you look at his numbers, You're like, twenty
twenty one home runs? What's going on? Like, so it's
(12:53):
wild to me that he hasn't taken that next step,
and he I think he has a really good shot
this year. And for that reason, my point being is
I just think Kyle Tucker just completely changes the look
of this lineup. Plus we haven't talked a lot about it.
He's a stolen base threat too. Like now PCA plus
Nico plus Kyle Tucker three legitimate stolen base threats in
(13:15):
that lineup.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
In Matta, Matt Shaw is stolen quite a bit of
basis in Yeah, miners too, So throw it out there.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
He's got yeah, so you've got you've got a different
look lineup. But to your point, like Amaya Shaw, PCA, Dansby, Nico,
those are all guys that had these up and down
offensive seasons at any point during the season. Most of
(13:42):
these guys are still going to have up and downs.
But if Nico has a more Nico type of season
consistently offensively, if Dansby, if he doesn't need to slug
seven to seventy five like he did with the Braves
last year. But if he has a seven forty or
sorry not slug oh ps. But if he has a
seven four year ops and it's just a little bit
more consistent, he becomes a five to six war player PCA.
(14:06):
If he just does what he did in the second
half and doesn't do what he did in the first half,
you know, just his slump is just a little bit
more manageable. Same thing with a Maya, Man, I mean,
like those are all really positive things. And if Matt
Shaw is a two point five war player like Fangrafts
think cld. Uh, that's that's a lot better than the
third base situation we had last year, you know. So, Uh,
(14:30):
there's a lot to be excited about. But it would
like I said, it wouldn't surprise me if you were like, hey,
you know Pca is back struggling, Maya's back struggling, Nico
isn't hit with runners in scoring position, dan Be's deally
with some injuries like that wouldn't surprise me either. So
there's a lot to be seen by by you know,
midpoint of the season. Uh, most position players, it's it's
(14:51):
like a lock.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Like we we have our guys that are probably gonna
be starters, but there's injuries like you said that happened
throughout the season. Who are one of the guys, Like
I live in Iowa, spend a lot of time going
to a lot of Iowa Cubs games. You have guys
that can step in. Who do you see down there
that could really make an impact on the team this year?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Where do I start? There's so many, man, I think
I'll tell you what I think the two biggest wild
cards that could either be in Triple A or back
and forth between Triple A and the majors. It's Ben
Brown and Kate Horton. Like Kate Horton, you think about
(15:34):
where we were a year ago and we were like, yeah,
by Junie, he's coming in and he's starting, and he
might even be an ace by the end of the season,
and then he had the back injury. If he's healthy,
which it looks like he has been, He's thrown some
bullpens out here. I've been next to when he said
he feels really good, so all the science points a
good things from him. Ben Brown is gonna be thrown
to live batters today, So I'm really excited to get
(15:56):
that on film and see what he looks like. I
worry about the organization stretching them out and trying to
throw them into the starting position. But that's what the
Cubs need right now is maybe one more leverage guy,
maybe one more starter. And if both those guys are healthy,
both those guys are dealing, you could be seeing, you know,
(16:16):
one in the rotation and one in the bullpen, and
that if they're producing and they're doing bang up job.
That changes the look of this pitching staff dramatically. Aside
from that, I really am excited for a full season
of Luke Little. I mean, he was really starting to
(16:38):
feel it last year when he got injured. And then
you know the thing for the like position players only
Casey and Kevin al Katara and James Trelanto's and Moyses
bias Steros. I'm just like, man, there's gonna have to
be an injury or something for those guys to get
playing time, because you don't want to bring up Moiss
Bias Steros and own Casey and say you're going to
(16:58):
get the Alexander Canari treatment and just get a couple
of bat every seven days. I don't think that's good
for them. I don't think that helps anyone. So to me,
if like Sea goes down with an oblique thing, if
Ian happ goes down with a hamstring thing, okay, let's
let's see what Owen's got. Same thing with Bias Steros.
(17:19):
Maybe maybe Carson Kelly is, you know, dealing with a
little something little growing, I don't know, and Bia Stereos
comes up and can be that number two catcher for
a couple of weeks. That to me is where they
step in and maybe if they produce, which is really
difficult by the way, Mitch, it's you know, the Triple
A and Major League gap. You don't expect these guys
(17:39):
to come in and start producing right away. Christopher Morrell
when he did that back in twenty twenty two, that
was that was the outlier. Maybe they can stay on
the roster after that, but they they're gonna have a
lot of pressure on themselves to produce right away if
they get that chance.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So what you're saying is it's gonna be a fun
year to watch iole Cups baseball.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I think I think it's gonna be a fun year
to watch both. But I'm just really interested to see.
We usually have these plans right of like, oh, this
guy's gonna come around this time this year. It's like,
I don't I don't know where these guys fit, which
is why I'm kind of surprised that there weren't more
trades this offseason with the prospects. But I'm also glad
about that because you look at the twenty twenty six roster.
(18:23):
After twenty twenty six, there's not a lot of guys
left on this team, So I think the prospects need
to say, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It was really hard when I lived in Ames, Like
we went to a ton of ile Cubs games and
got to know a lot of the prospects, and then
they're getting traded and it's like, hey, I know this guy,
like he's I have a connection like and then he's gone.
So it's it's tough that to deal with prospects and
you learn to like them and you're like, Okay, this
guy's a good dude, and then gets traded away, but
(18:50):
it's still can follow his career just with another team.
Who else like that you've seen so far in spring training?
They're like, man, that that he looks sharp or it's
looked look good. I know justin Steele, you showed his
video looked sharp right away in his first outing talk
about bringing Hugheses back and.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
He looked good. Who are somebody else that You're like, man,
he looked really good. I mean Porter Hodge looked really good.
Yesterday saw four batters, albeit minor league batters, but struck
out all four. And you know, kind of back to
my point, there hasn't been a ton of guys. There
hasn't been a ton of like really intense practices yet
(19:33):
so it's tough for me to say that. I feel
like if you asked me that question again in three days,
I might have a better answer for you. But Steele
and and Hodge are the first ones that come to mind.
Mm hmmm, h Ben. You know what, Ben Cowles is
really fun to watch in the infield. He he's got
a smooth globe. I didn't know that about him. I
(19:55):
didn't know anything about his fielding. I've I've heard you know,
he's a pretty hitter, but his glove really has impressed me. Sweet.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Well, I'll let you go because I know you have
to get out and they're gonna be starting to practice
here pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
You want to get over there and see see all that.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
So thanks for joining us. We really appreciate it. Keep
killing the content for the Cubs. We as Cubs fans
appreciate all the videos and everything you're putting out there,
So keep doing that. Make sure you go and subscribe
to his YouTube channel, set up Man on YouTube and
follow him on.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Twitters, everywhere else. The Instagram and TikTok is all at
set up Man Kyle yep. So thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Appreciate you stepping in giving your time, especially being out
spring training.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
So thanks a lot, Kyle. Thanks Mitch. It's Mitch from
The Dinger's podcast Today.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
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Speaker 2 (20:54):
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(21:19):
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(21:51):
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(22:12):
the Dingers Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the interview with
Kyle from The Setup Man. The dude is awesome. To
make sure you're subscribing and following him at.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
In all those places. But yeah, excited that sprint training
is here.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Hopefully we have games coming in like twelve days and
the season will be here before we know it, like
thirty six days and there in Japan playing a game.
So excited that baseball is back, even though it's snowing
here in Iowa a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So thanks for listening and go Cubs.
You're listening to The Dinger's Podcast, presented to you by
Test Sorts Network with your host Mitch Jeff Kevis.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Ready to talk to the Cubs. All I need is
y I ain't believe, under estimate the Swingers.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
The Dinger's Podcast is on the air. I'm your host Mitch.
Today we got a great episode for you. We have
an interview with Kyle from The Setup Man. He is
out at spring training right now, so he's been I mean,
if you follow him, which I hopefully you are on
X on Instagram, on his YouTube channel, you see that
(00:49):
he's posting daily videos of spring training. You see he
just posted a video of Brandon Hughes pitching and the
other day Justin Steele his bullpen and it's it's he's
He's amazing. He does some great interviews. Just had an
interview with Matt Shaw. Highly recommend you check that out.
But the dude is phenomenal with his Cubs content. So
(01:13):
reached out to him, got an interview with just the
Vibe at spring Training and got into all the things
happening out there, what it's like to take part in
in going out to a spring training. So hopefully you
guys enjoy this interview with the great Kyle from the
Setup Man from The Dinger's Podcast, and it's time to
(01:36):
make a call to the pen.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Bring on the righty, are you alrighty? I am alrighty. Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He throws the absolute gas out of the pen. We're
joined by the Setup Man, Kyle, and we're excited to
have him. If you follow him on YouTube or x
you know that he's putting out great Cubs content. So
we're pleased to welcome Kyle from the Setup Man on
The Dinger's Podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Mitch, thanks for having me. Man.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yeah, a couple of years ago, like the word with
the Cubs was a vibe, Like it's a vibe, like
in you're at spring training right now? Like what what
is the vibe at spring training with the Cubs? Like
it's been kind of like an up and down roller
coaster of an off season and we just had some
crazy news of like the bragmant thing going on.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
What's the vibe at spring training right now? I I
love this question because like you think, like if you
if you've never been to spring training or you've never
been to Cubs cod and you're like, what's the vibe
and it's like, I don't know that there's like enough
going on to feel a vibe from the players. But
what I will say is from a fans standpoint, this
(02:46):
is my second spring training, uh coming. Like the practices,
the amount of fans that are here is a lot
more than last year, a lot more so. Like there's
a little autograph area that I'm looking at over here.
Last year it was two or three people. Now it's
like ten to twelve. You got a ton of people
that are trying to, you know, get Kyle Tucker's autograph.
(03:08):
You've got a ton of people are trying to get
showed him in Naga. A lot of Japanese media, a
lot of Japanese fans this year, whereas like last year,
I think there was just a few. And I just
think that that's a really cool thing to see out here.
From myself, it makes it a little harder for me
to get some content sometimes because I'm battling with like
(03:28):
trying to shoot over people's heads and stuff, but it's
it's fun. And then like from a player coaches standpoint,
all that kind of stuff, what was really interesting for
me this time around is it's a lot chiller this year,
Like practices feel like they're starting later. There's less going
on like during those practices. But I think, like with
(03:50):
this only being year two for me, I think I
want to I want to say maybe last year was
the exception because it was Greg Council's first year. Maybe
he just wanted to like get into things and like
just get a lot of stuff going so that he
could see all the guys where now he's a little
bit more familiar and he just wants the guys to
be healthy, and he wants the guys to like do
things based on their schedule. A lot a lot of
these players have been living here in Arizona since like
(04:12):
the end of the season, and so for that reason,
I think there's just a little bit more of like, hey,
we don't have to like do so much. Let's just
do like a three hour practice instead of a four
or five hour practice like last year. So yeah, it's
it's a little more laid back, but it's it's fun.
I'll say one thing. It was really fun seeing Kyle
Tucker in the full Cubs UNI the other day. That
(04:33):
was cool. Yeah, he looked good.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
He looked again in that in that baby blue hat.
I like the Thay spring training hats. Oh yeah, I've
never been to Cubs spring training. Played college baseball and
we played some games in Florida and got to go
to some spring training games in Florida.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I've never been to Mesa, never been to Cubs. We
just had a conversation with my wife, like we need
to sometime take a trip out there.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
What is it like as a fan or like for you,
like how much do you get to like see and
experience like with spring training?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It's so much fun, man, Like this is the World
Series for Cubs fans, for any fans, or you can
call it the Christmas for fans, Like, you know, uh,
just this morning, as soon as I'm walking up here,
you know, Matt Shaw's signing a bunch of autographs and
I walk over and I had him on my channel
last month and hey Kyle or hey Matt, it's Kyle,
(05:30):
And oh hey Kyle, how long you here for? And
you know you're just chatting like you're, you know, running
into a friend at the mall kind of thing. Ben
Brown was over here. I'm on my channel last month
as well, and you know I'm the only one here
at feel one right now, and Ben's walking in and out.
I was just like, hey, what's up Ben, And I'm like, man,
all these like autograph guys over here, they're missing out
(05:53):
on Ben over here, and I'm you know, just get
to have a two three minute conversation with Ben and
it's really cool. Man, Like it's it's just such a
laid back vibe. I will say, it's not like that
with everyone. You know, there's some guys that are just
like they're therein like I'm focused. I don't want to
deal with any outside distractions, which is fine, but this
is all open, free to the public. Like I get
(06:15):
dms all the time from people that are like, hey,
like how do you get a media credential or how
much does it cost gain there? I'm like, guys, this
is free. Like all the things I'm doing, I don't
have a media credential. I'm not paying to get in here.
You know. I'm looking at all the coaches getting ready
over right here right now, like I'm there's literally no
one here. And then once the practice is start around
like ten thirty, it'll just flood with fans. So if
(06:38):
you're gonna come out, come out early. If you're gonna
come later, stay later, because that's when all the players leave.
Then they go back to their cars and everyone's gone,
and it's it's just it's like photographs, autographs and having
even conversations with players. Justin Steele has come up a
bunch over here and just talks to all the all
the autographers and is out and including myself. Just it's fun.
(07:00):
It's it's really cool. I can't explain except for it's
just like it's like you get to just run into
your favorite player at the mall and have a conversation
like that's that's the cool part about it. Yeah, need to.
I need to In the next couple of years.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
That'll be a trip that my wife and I take
out and take kids, maybe go out and see The
Cubs have done quite a bit of job in remaking
their bullpen. Their bench looks a lot different than last year,
but we still have some holes, Like they're still like, Okay,
we're gonna try maybe Canario at first base as a backup.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
We have Birdie that can maybe float around to third or.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Second, Like are you concerned with that that we haven't
done enough like to fill in those holes. We've spent
so much time trying to go after like Bregman or
maybe that's then the where the focus was. But have
we done enough to fill in those holes to be
able to have a good bench, to be able to
support the stars that.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Are pretty locked in at their positions. Yeah, I think
the bullpen has said I think Jed did a really
good job with the bullpen this offseason. Had we not
gotten the big names like Presley and Brazier, I wouldn't
have said the same. But you have impact plus depth
this year, and there's some guys that could surprise us
like Phil Bickford looked good, brand Hughes looked good yesterday,
(08:23):
this guy Ben Heller, Brad Keller, who Tyler Zombro is
really high on. By the way, there's a lot of
excitement out of the bullpen, and I think that they'll
be able to deal with injuries a lot better out
of the bullpen this year. The starters, I really really
really thought we were going to get an impact starter
(08:44):
over the off season. Now you're really helping that Boyd
stays healthy. You're hoping that Javier Sad stays healthy. He's
already dealing with an oblique issue. So then what's your
backup is it's Jordan Wicks and Colin Ray, and that
just feels feels like if in the hunt by the
trade deadline, that's going to be the number one target
(09:05):
the bench though, to your question, yeah, I just I
don't know. I with with us being thirty two million
dollars short right now of the back threshold, plus the
bench looking the way it is, it just feels like
there's another move coming. I hope it's a Justin Turner
type of move. I don't have the free agents in
front of me right now. I know there's been other
(09:27):
talks of other free agents from people, but like Justin
Turner just feels like a really good option. There canario
being forced at first base. I don't know. I don't.
I always feel like they just like say, oh, go
play first base, Like you know, let's just throw this
guy at first base. I mean, Michael Bush last year
didn't look great at first base during spring training and
(09:49):
then found a way to make it not only work,
but like by the end of the season last year
he looked like he was a gold glove first baseman.
It took a while, though, Like, I don't, I don't
think that that just happens over now. So yeah, that
worries me. There's not aside from Canario, there's not a
lot of pop off the bench. Carcy Kelly, I don't
(10:09):
know the last time he hit double digit home runs.
John Burdy doesn't hit home runs. Beat all Brewan doesn't
hit home runs gauged workmen. But I was just talking
to a friend about him, like, are we really like,
just because he was a Rule five draft pick, we
just assumed he's gonna be on the roster, Like the
dude's never even seen a pitch in triple A. I
know he's got a great glove. I know, especially if
this Matt Shaw injury doesn't continue to heal, which it
(10:30):
sounds like it is after talking this morning, sounds like
he's pretty much ready to go in a couple of
days here. Then maybe gauge Workman fits in the roster.
But I have a hard time thinking like, oh, yeah,
he's got a great glove, and because we got him
the Rule five draft, we're just gonna throwhim on the
twenty six minut roster and that's already compacted. It feels
it feels like a push to me. So but yeah,
(10:51):
to make to make a long story short, I think
they are one move away from the bench, and I
would be surprised that they don't make that move. Uh.
Speaking out with offense.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So it's been kind of trend the last couple of
years where the Cub's offense is kind of just taking
a vacation for a month or two in Uh, you
just go through those stretches where just noble clicking, nobody's
it's it's it's just struggle to score runs.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Do you think they've done enough?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I mean, Kyle Tucker will help probably stabilize because of
his consistency at the plate. But what I look at
is like the Miguel Amaya's the PCAs who took a
big step last year in the second half. Do you
think the offense has enough now with some young guys
that have kind of got over the hump a little
bit to be able to stabilize that offense throughout the
(11:45):
whole year.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I think if in July you told me they were
bottom third offense, I wouldn't be surprised. And if you
told me in July that they were top five offense,
I also wouldn't be surprise. And the thing is we
can't like underestimate enough how much of an impact Kyle
Tuckler makes in this lineup, I think, I don't, I don't.
(12:11):
I don't want to throw out like a really big
projection here, but I just think about a guy like
sayas Azuki, who has had so much pressure to like
take the next step, and now he's not gonna be
in the field. He doesn't have to worry about criticism
of as being an outfielder, and instead of like being
the guy in the lineup, now he is the guy
(12:32):
behind the guy. I can see a really big year
out of says Azuki because the pressure is just off.
And man, the way that he hits at spring training,
you're like, the ball, just the ball, just it's crazy, dude.
Like you watch this guy in VP and you're like,
this guy's a thirty five to forty home run guy,
and then you look at his numbers, You're like, twenty
twenty one home runs? What's going on? Like, so it's
(12:53):
wild to me that he hasn't taken that next step,
and he I think he has a really good shot
this year. And for that reason, my point being is
I just think Kyle Tucker just completely changes the look
of this lineup. Plus we haven't talked a lot about it.
He's a stolen base threat too. Like now PCA plus
Nico plus Kyle Tucker three legitimate stolen base threats in
(13:15):
that lineup.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
In Matta, Matt Shaw is stolen quite a bit of
basis in Yeah, miners too, So throw it out there.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
He's got yeah, so you've got you've got a different
look lineup. But to your point, like Amaya Shaw, PCA, Dansby, Nico,
those are all guys that had these up and down
offensive seasons at any point during the season. Most of
(13:42):
these guys are still going to have up and downs.
But if Nico has a more Nico type of season
consistently offensively, if Dansby, if he doesn't need to slug
seven to seventy five like he did with the Braves
last year. But if he has a seven forty or
sorry not slug oh ps. But if he has a
seven four year ops and it's just a little bit
more consistent, he becomes a five to six war player PCA.
(14:06):
If he just does what he did in the second
half and doesn't do what he did in the first half,
you know, just his slump is just a little bit
more manageable. Same thing with a Maya, Man, I mean,
like those are all really positive things. And if Matt
Shaw is a two point five war player like Fangrafts
think cld. Uh, that's that's a lot better than the
third base situation we had last year, you know. So, Uh,
(14:30):
there's a lot to be excited about. But it would
like I said, it wouldn't surprise me if you were like, hey,
you know Pca is back struggling, Maya's back struggling, Nico
isn't hit with runners in scoring position, dan Be's deally
with some injuries like that wouldn't surprise me either. So
there's a lot to be seen by by you know,
midpoint of the season. Uh, most position players, it's it's
(14:51):
like a lock.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Like we we have our guys that are probably gonna
be starters, but there's injuries like you said that happened
throughout the season. Who are one of the guys, Like
I live in Iowa, spend a lot of time going
to a lot of Iowa Cubs games. You have guys
that can step in. Who do you see down there
that could really make an impact on the team this year?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Where do I start? There's so many, man, I think
I'll tell you what I think the two biggest wild
cards that could either be in Triple A or back
and forth between Triple A and the majors. It's Ben
Brown and Kate Horton. Like Kate Horton, you think about
(15:34):
where we were a year ago and we were like, yeah,
by Junie, he's coming in and he's starting, and he
might even be an ace by the end of the season,
and then he had the back injury. If he's healthy,
which it looks like he has been, He's thrown some
bullpens out here. I've been next to when he said
he feels really good, so all the science points a
good things from him. Ben Brown is gonna be thrown
to live batters today, So I'm really excited to get
(15:56):
that on film and see what he looks like. I
worry about the organization stretching them out and trying to
throw them into the starting position. But that's what the
Cubs need right now is maybe one more leverage guy,
maybe one more starter. And if both those guys are healthy,
both those guys are dealing, you could be seeing, you know,
(16:16):
one in the rotation and one in the bullpen, and
that if they're producing and they're doing bang up job.
That changes the look of this pitching staff dramatically. Aside
from that, I really am excited for a full season
of Luke Little. I mean, he was really starting to
(16:38):
feel it last year when he got injured. And then
you know the thing for the like position players only
Casey and Kevin al Katara and James Trelanto's and Moyses
bias Steros. I'm just like, man, there's gonna have to
be an injury or something for those guys to get
playing time, because you don't want to bring up Moiss
Bias Steros and own Casey and say you're going to
(16:58):
get the Alexander Canari treatment and just get a couple
of bat every seven days. I don't think that's good
for them. I don't think that helps anyone. So to me,
if like Sea goes down with an oblique thing, if
Ian happ goes down with a hamstring thing, okay, let's
let's see what Owen's got. Same thing with Bias Steros.
(17:19):
Maybe maybe Carson Kelly is, you know, dealing with a
little something little growing, I don't know, and Bia Stereos
comes up and can be that number two catcher for
a couple of weeks. That to me is where they
step in and maybe if they produce, which is really
difficult by the way, Mitch, it's you know, the Triple
A and Major League gap. You don't expect these guys
(17:39):
to come in and start producing right away. Christopher Morrell
when he did that back in twenty twenty two, that
was that was the outlier. Maybe they can stay on
the roster after that, but they they're gonna have a
lot of pressure on themselves to produce right away if
they get that chance.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So what you're saying is it's gonna be a fun
year to watch iole Cups baseball.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I think I think it's gonna be a fun year
to watch both. But I'm just really interested to see.
We usually have these plans right of like, oh, this
guy's gonna come around this time this year. It's like,
I don't I don't know where these guys fit, which
is why I'm kind of surprised that there weren't more
trades this offseason with the prospects. But I'm also glad
about that because you look at the twenty twenty six roster.
(18:23):
After twenty twenty six, there's not a lot of guys
left on this team, So I think the prospects need
to say, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It was really hard when I lived in Ames, Like
we went to a ton of ile Cubs games and
got to know a lot of the prospects, and then
they're getting traded and it's like, hey, I know this guy,
like he's I have a connection like and then he's gone.
So it's it's tough that to deal with prospects and
you learn to like them and you're like, Okay, this
guy's a good dude, and then gets traded away, but
(18:50):
it's still can follow his career just with another team.
Who else like that you've seen so far in spring training?
They're like, man, that that he looks sharp or it's
looked look good. I know justin Steele, you showed his
video looked sharp right away in his first outing talk
about bringing Hugheses back and.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
He looked good. Who are somebody else that You're like, man,
he looked really good. I mean Porter Hodge looked really good.
Yesterday saw four batters, albeit minor league batters, but struck
out all four. And you know, kind of back to
my point, there hasn't been a ton of guys. There
hasn't been a ton of like really intense practices yet
(19:33):
so it's tough for me to say that. I feel
like if you asked me that question again in three days,
I might have a better answer for you. But Steele
and and Hodge are the first ones that come to mind.
Mm hmmm, h Ben. You know what, Ben Cowles is
really fun to watch in the infield. He he's got
a smooth globe. I didn't know that about him. I
(19:55):
didn't know anything about his fielding. I've I've heard you know,
he's a pretty hitter, but his glove really has impressed me. Sweet.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Well, I'll let you go because I know you have
to get out and they're gonna be starting to practice
here pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
You want to get over there and see see all that.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
So thanks for joining us. We really appreciate it. Keep
killing the content for the Cubs. We as Cubs fans
appreciate all the videos and everything you're putting out there,
So keep doing that. Make sure you go and subscribe
to his YouTube channel, set up Man on YouTube and
follow him on.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Twitters, everywhere else. The Instagram and TikTok is all at
set up Man Kyle yep. So thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Appreciate you stepping in giving your time, especially being out
spring training.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
So thanks a lot, Kyle. Thanks Mitch. It's Mitch from
The Dinger's podcast Today.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
I want to talk to you about something that's truly
transformed the way that I, as a coach work with
young players and especially my own kids.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I'm talking about the B four bat app.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
For those who have ever heard of before bat app,
it is an incredible tool that lets you track your exitvelocity,
launch angle, and more, all from your iPhone. No fancy
bat sensor or expensive equipment needed, just your iPhone, a
tripod and you're good to go. I use the BA
four bat app daily with my son and daughter and
the results have been phenomenal. It provides valuable data and
(21:19):
video feedback that helps fine tune their swing. My son
absolutely loves it. He gets a kick out of watching
his videos of his swing and especially enjoys tracking his
exit velocity.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It's like a game for it.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
I'm trying to find that perfect blaunch angle to maximize
his explosity. For me, it's been amazing to see how
much this app has really helped improve their swings in
that immediate feedback and data that they get are a
game changer. So if you're looking to get that valuable
data and insight for your own slugger and for them
(21:51):
to hit maybe some more dingers this season, I highly
recommend checking out before Batting app. You can go to
bfore dot org, app dot com, or search before Batting
in the app store. Trust me, you and your kids
will love it. Now let's get back to hitting some
more dingers. Thanks for joining us in this episode of
(22:12):
the Dingers Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the interview with
Kyle from The Setup Man. The dude is awesome. To
make sure you're subscribing and following him at.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
In all those places. But yeah, excited that sprint training
is here.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Hopefully we have games coming in like twelve days and
the season will be here before we know it, like
thirty six days and there in Japan playing a game.
So excited that baseball is back, even though it's snowing
here in Iowa a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So thanks for listening and go Cubs.
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